Rabbi
Jacobson Shlita from Chabad put out a spiritual guide to enhance one’s Seder:
PDF free download: https://www.meaningfullife.com/15-steps-download/Rabbi
Jacobson also has a spiritual guide to the counting of Omer available in
pamphlet form for $10 or http://www.aish.com/h/o/t/48969716.html?s=mpwThere
is also an e-mail reminder and a phone app. A number of years ago I also copied
and pasted one of these in the blogspot. Remember if you counted the first day
with a blessing and forgot the next night to bless but remembered to count
during the day, then you can continue blessing if not then you must say Amen at
the Synagogue to grab or hop on to the blessing.

The
7 weeks of Sefira (counting) are preparation for the receiving of Torah on
Shavuos and it is the barley and wheat harvest time. During these weeks there is
a bit of a mystical rise in spirituality. Starting with Motzei Chag HaPessach
aka the Second Seder outside of Israel, we count the 49 days in this order. The
first week is Chessed or Mercy. Within the Chessed we have 7 aspects. Chessed
within Chessed or the highest degree of mercy. We continue on within the week
the way we count the weeks. So the second week and second day of each week’s
counting is Gevura or Severity. Rabbi Jacobson calls the seven as follows until
we have a 7 x 7 or 49 ways of elevating ourselves
spiritually.

For
my large readership outside of Israel, I use the standard pronunciation of
Tiferes and Malchus. I use for Malchus the word Kingship for Melech David,
Melech Shlomo and the whole line until Moshiach is Malchus David pronounced more
like DAA
VEED.

Sell
your Chametz
(leaven) or finish up all your whiskey. If you drink like I do you will sell
your stock. If for some reason you cannot get to your local Rabbi click here for
an on-line sale. https://www.chabad.org/holidays/passover/sell_chometz.htmHave
in mind that Chabad is your agent for selling.

Steps
in preparation for the Seder: First clean up the house. I do normal cleaning of
most of my house as Chametz is only in the kitchen, living room and dining room
area. I check my forester son’s room a bit more but it essentially is Chametz
free as he is close to 12.

Second
buy Kosher Le Pessach food. Third check for Chametz on the night before the
Seder. I place 10 counted and recounted pieces of bread in aluminum foil and my
wife distributes them in the house. One should remember where they were place.
One then makes the blessing found in the Haggada and lights a candle (for
automobiles the Rabbis allow a small flashlight even if it is bright like a
torch [English name for flashlight] for safety around gasoline comes first).
After we have finished the Bedikah (checking for Chametz), we say the Aramaic
version and then in English or Hebrew voiding all leavening that is in our
physical possession and we have not known about it. Of course if Spanish,
Russian, French are your native tongue it is proper to also say this in a
language that all in the house can understand.

Three:
Once the Kitchen and a section of the refrigerator-freezer is for Pessach, one
can start cooking and one need not wait until the last minute. There are Pessach
recipes and the Code of Jewish Law (Kitzur Shulchan Aruch) has one for
Charoses.

Four:
On the Shabbos before Pessach it is customary even by the greatest of Rabbis
to review the laws of Pessach, the conducting of the Seder and Omer
Counting.

Five:
Erev Pessach - In the
tenth and final plague inflicted upon Egypt, G‑d killed the firstborn in all of
Egypt. But, as in all the plagues brought upon Egypt, the Children
of Israel were spared. In the Plague of the Firstborn, not one Jewish firstborn
died. To express their gratitude, all firstborn males fast on the day
before Passover (Erev Pesach). The fathers of firstborn boys under the
age of 13 fast in their stead.

The
prevailing custom, however, is for the firstborn to exempt themselves from the
obligation to fast by participating in a Seudas mitzvah (a meal marking
the fulfillment of a mitzvah), such as a Seeum--a festive meal
celebrating the conclusion of the study of a section of Torah). Most synagogues
host such a celebration after morning prayers.

Six:
Preparing the needs of the Seder Plate Erev Yom Tov which would be the salt
water, eggs, Charoses (paste mix of nuts, wine, raisins, apples, cinnamon,
ginger, dates and other traditional items). Cutting up celery, radish, parsley
or a potato for the first blessing for the dipping of the vegetable. Checking
for worms in the lettuce and preparing the horseradish. (Some people use a
vegetable called wormwood which is also good.)

Seven:
Set the Table before sundown so that the people upon returning from the Schul go
straight to the Seder.

Eight:
Conduct an inspiring Seder that involves the participation of the children. “And
you shall tell your son on that day saying…” Shemos 13:8 Each child on his or
her level and their participation is of the highest
order.

Nine:
Remember the Apikoyman is the desert but it is a larger than half a Matzo which
symbolizes the Korban Pessach while the egg is the symbol of the Korban Chagigah
(visiting Yerushayim and the Beis HaMikdash of the Yom Tov). The Korban Pessach
was eaten on a full stomach hence the last part of the meal. After than one can
only drink and take medication if necessary.

The
four sons of the Seder are an integral part of Am Yisrael. We have the Chacham,
wise son, that wants to learn and discuss the Seder. We have the Rasha, wicked
son, today who purposely goes and has bread and beer instead of a religious
Seder. We have the Tam, simple son, that comes to the Seder enjoys the food but
neither adds nor detracts or participates on an intellectual level. Finally, we
have the baby or lost Jew that does not know even what to ask or what a Seder
is. I was there for the first years of my life prior to close to my tenth
birthday. It was I who conducted the Seder. I have cousins whom I suspect don’t
know what a Seder is. There are perhaps thousands in the former Soviet Union and
Eastern Europe who do not know or those who were born Jewish but after WWII the
parents or grandparents hid their identity.

Remember
Kitniyos is a Minchag and not Halacha. Some families eat rice and maize corn.
Others eat peanuts and some who don’t in case of emergency or one is in a
hospital, one may eat without worry something that is not his or her custom or
on their standard.

When
one developed a relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe of our generation --and
I (Ephraim "Freddie" Hager) think this is true for most people--it helped one
realize more about oneself. It wasn't about analyzing the Rebbe, like going to
interview a great man and finding out more about him; it was about meeting
yourself.

The
second time I went into "yechidus" -- a private audience with the Rebbe
-- was Yud Shevat 5730/1970. Many of us flew over especially for it, the 20th
anniversary of the sixth Rebbe's passing and the Rebbe's succession to the
leadership. It was Sunday evening, and the Rebbe's secretary Rabbi Groner called
me over and said that the Rebbe wants to see each of the guests in
yechidus.

I
never expected to receive a yechidus, because I had one some five months
previously. This night it was a ten minute yechidus, which was much
shorter than the previous time. There were hundreds of people going in that
night. In that yechidus, the Rebbe asked me, "What do the students in
London University do about kosher food?"

So
I said, "Well, they are now rebuilding Hillel House; it'll be finished in
October and then there will be facilities." This was January,
1970.

So
the Rebbe looked at me, a piercing look...and he says, "So tell me: Until
October is it permissible to eat non-kosher food?" I felt very, very stupid.

Before
I go on, I must say this: As far as I know, the Rebbe never visited London and
had no first-hand knowledge of London.

"As
far as I understand," the Rebbe continued, "the University of London is not a
typical university campus with all the colleges in one location, but the
colleges are spread out and dotted around parts of the town; so would I not be
correct in saying that only a committed student who is specifically looking for
kosher food will come to the Hillel House?"

Of
course I agreed.

So
the Rebbe says, "What do we do about the other
students?"

Silence
from yours truly...

The
Rebbe said, "Wouldn't it be a good idea to make a meal service and actively
invite people to come and eat kosher food?"

So
I got very enthusiastic and I warmed to the theme and I said, "That's a
wonderful idea! And we could have lectures and guest speakers, and draw them
closer to Torah Judaism..."

The
Rebbe held up his hand and said, "That's very nice and it may be a good idea,
but that's not what I have in mind. What I have in mind with this suggestion is
purely that a Jewish boy should sit next to a Jewish girl; he should sit eating
a kosher meal next to a Jewish girl rather than eating a non-kosher meal next to
a non-Jewish girl."

Anyway,
to cut a long story short, I told the Rebbe "We'll do
it."

And
we did it.

I
came back to London and talked to a friend of mine, a very enthusiastic young
man, and we arranged a meal service. We collaborated with one of the then major
restaurants in London and they delivered meals to three colleges; I think it was
London School of Economics, Kings College and Imperial College in London. And
the service went on for many years. I think, in some sort of transmuted way, it
still continues.

The
service was a tremendous success. We used to go out two or three times a week
raising money because it needed a lot of subsidy and I think I did more of that
than studying at university. I think my grades reflected that fact, but we won't
dwell on that...

This
came out of one ten minute yechidus! And it was only part of a ten minute
yechidus ...It was a monumental, cataclysmic idea which must have changed
many peoples' lives.

There
are a number of leaders-rabbis, rebbes, heads of yeshivas, who worry
about their communities--and that's great, very laudable and very wonderful, and
we need more leaders like that. But the Rebbe had a broader outlook. He was
concerned about the wider world. He was concerned about people that he'd never
met, that he may possibly never meet but that concerned him, and it wouldn't let
him sleep and it wouldn't let him rest until he did something about
it...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Source:
Excerpted by Yerachmiel Tilles from a mailing of "JEM - Here's My Story"
(//JEmedia.org), as part of their extraordinary "My Encounter with the Rebbe"
project, documenting the life of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi M. M. Schneerson
of righteous memory, in one of the thousand plus videotaped interviews conducted
to date with seniors who knew the Rebbe in the early years, even in the 30's and
40's before he became the Rebbe.Ephraim "Freddie" Hager was interviewed in
his home in London in the summer of 2007. He passed away in
2011.

Connection:
Seasonal--the 116th anniversary of the birth of the Lubavitcher
Rebbe

Biographical
note:Rabbi
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe: [11 Nissan 5662 - 3
Tammuz 5754 (April 1902 - June 1994 C.E.)], became the seventh Rebbe of the
Chabad dynasty after his father-in-law's passing on 10 Shvat 5710 (1950 C.E.).
He is widely acknowledged as the greatest Jewish leader of the second half of
the 20th century. Although a dominant scholar in both the revealed and hidden
aspects of Torah and fluent in many languages and scientific subjects, the Rebbe
is best known for his extraordinary love and concern for every Jew on the
planet. His emissaries around the globe are dedicated to strengthening Judaism
number in the thousands. Hundreds of volumes of his teachings have been printed,
as well as dozens of English renditions.

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